TOW #29: Jesus Camp (Documentary)

Last week, I had the opportunity to watch a very interesting documentary, called Jesus Camp. As I said in my last post, this film follows three strict Evangelical Christians through their faiths as they travel to a camp that is organized to prepare children for sharing their religion with others. While the passing down values to new generations is clearly important to the survival of society and culture, I believe that this camp might have passed that fine line between teaching and brainwashing. There is one, very memorable point in the film where the camp organizers brought in ceramic mugs and preached to the children about government. They then wrote the word "government" on these mugs and gave each kid a chance to smash them to bits with a hammer. First of all, none of these children were wearing safety goggles, which is my first problem. Second though, they were all so young and metaphorically criticizing their own national leaders on the basis of issues that they were too young to fully understand. As a kid, it's hard to comprehend the degree of certain issues and the extreme importance those issues hold. As an adult, I believe that one's responsibility is to pass on moral values to younger generations, but I think it is wrong to instill opinions in kids when the debates they are taking sides on are so complex. Otherwise, how can it be considered their opinion? There was another similar scene in the documentary when politics again entered the camp. A man was talking to the kids about abortion and how wrong it is. Again, I respect the opinions of the religion, and the right of citizens to speak and think freely. What I vehemently disagreed with was what took place after the conversation. Some of the children traveled to a courthouse and protested outside with adult members of the group. They placed pieces of tape with the words "LIFE" on their mouths. This goes back to my previous idea of telling kids to have an extreme opinion on complex problems. At that age I was playing outside, not worrying whether abortion was morally right. I know now that I would not have been able to make an educated decision on my stance. I do not believe that these kids could either. But the stance is not theirs, it is the opinion of their elders being pressed upon them. Throughout the film, many other mixtures of church and state show up, proving that the religion has a political stance, even though church leaders do not formally admit it. I just know that I was very uncomfortable when watching this documentary. I have to disagree with the camp and their end goal of spreading a faith that supports these methods.